Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full, Mack's POV
by Evey Edge
Summary: Episode 5 from Mack's perspective. Includes a few scenes not from the episode. Mack/Cheryl. Disclaimer: I don't own ABC's Scoundrels, just wish I did.
1. Chapter 1

Mack had to admit that this was a new experience for him. Usually getting a West into a police station was a long drawn out process involving warrants, handcuffs, and a squad car. Today Cheryl West had burst in to see him just as he was coming back from picking up his lunch order.

"Why is there an arrest on my record?"

The detective examined the contents of his delivery box, only too aware that the odds of him getting a chance to eat while it was still hot were not good.

"I imagine it's because you were arrested. Did you get grilled onions?"

Potts inspected his nearly identical order and switched delivery boxes.

Why couldn't Cheryl have waited an hour?

"It was a frame job! I didn't take any money. The manager told you that!"

Technically the manager had told Mack he'd made an "accounting error", but Cheryl's version of the truth was, for once, the one Mack believed.

"Cheryl, it's not a conviction, it's an arrest, but it does stay on your record."

The reason arrests remained on records was to tip off the next detective handling the file that the offender wasn't new to the system. When arrests don't lead to convictions, it's usually not because of the suspect's actual innocence. Leaving the arrests in the file is kind of like recording smoke to indicate fire.

"Don't you understand that every time I apply for a job someone runs a background check on me, I look like a felon, and then I don't get that job! Does that sound fair to you?"

Potts jumped in before Mack had the opportunity to answer. Just as well as Mack didn't know quite how to respond.

"Not to me. Do you want your pickle?"

Rookie partners, what are you going to do?

"Could you give us a minute?"

After Potts left the office Mack came around his desk to stand directly in front of Cheryl. Truthfully he agreed with Detective Potts. It didn't really seem fair that Cheryl couldn't find work because of something she didn't do.

"Listen Cheryl, what you need to do is file for an expungement. One copy goes to the judge, one copy goes to the DA. I think they get sixty days to consider it."

It was the best advice he had to offer, but unfortunately it wasn't good enough.

"Sixty days? I need a job. Look, I'm trying to get my life on track and I swear to God all I keep doing is running into obstacles. Do you people want to see me fail?"

In over twenty years Cheryl had never looked at Mack like this, earnest and vulnerable. She looked so…wronged and it was tying his stomach into knots.

"I know things are difficult right now-"

"Don't say you understand me. You don't understand the first thing about me. Thanks for the HELP. I'll figure it out myself."

Cheryl swept out of his office without another word, leaving Mack with a hell of a lot to think about and no desire to eat his untouched lunch.

"Serge?"

It had taken Potts not ten seconds to pop his head back in Mack's office.

"Not now Potts."

Mack didn't need any more distractions, he needed to think. Fortunately Potts took the hint and scuttled off to eat his lunch elsewhere.

Cheryl had asked him if he wanted to see her fail. That took some thought. Mack and Cheryl had been butting heads for a few decades now, mutually venting their frustrations at each other with biting repartee. They were in many senses antagonists. From that perspective Cheryl's question was fair. Was Mack so eager to put the West family behind bars that he not only expected Cheryl's efforts to fail, but that he was happily anticipating it? Did Mack want Cheryl to fail? Mack let the question sink in, until the answer rose from deep within him.

No. He didn't want Cheryl to fail. It wasn't only that as a cop, his job would be easier if the Wests retired from the crime business. It was that there was something really admirable about being willing to change. Cheryl West was desperately trying to save her family, even though the odds were stacked against her. She needed to find a job with no work experience apart from running a store of stolen goods. She had four children to wrangle, at least three of which were fighting her every step of the way. She had a husband who was probably trying to sabotage her efforts at every turn. Finally she had Mack, who had falsely arrested her and put a black mark on her otherwise clean record.

Cheryl was right, he didn't understand her. He didn't understand why someone whose family has always chose fast cash over hard work was fighting on such an impossible battle. She would lose, Mack still believed that, but he would be sorry when she did. Furthermore, he would make sure it would not be his fault. He still had thirty minutes of his lunch hour left. How long did it take to file a petition for an expungement any way?


	2. Chapter 2

"What the hell are you doing calling in favors for Cheryl West?"

Mack didn't need to turn around to recognize the biting tones of his ex-wife. He finished pouring himself a cup coffee before turning around to face the severe looking brunette. He ripped open two packets of sugar.

"Excuse me?"

It had been two days since he'd faxed over the paperwork and placed a few phone calls to expedite the process. Prosecutor O'Brien, after being reminded of one very eventful evening during which Mack had needed to physically haul the lawyer out of a strip club and provide an alibi to his irate wife, seemed only too willing to square accounts. Apparently that didn't mean keeping his mouth shut to the other members of the DA's office. Mack didn't even have to guess who Barbara's inside source was.

"I just heard you're pushing to get her record expunged."

"Really? Where do you get your information, as if I need to ask?"

Barbara's face reddened, though from anger or embarrassment Mack couldn't say. Most people in the precinct knew Barbara was currently seeing Prosecutor Mark Harris in the DA's office. Only Mack, Barbara, and Mark knew the affair had been going on since well before the divorce papers had been filed. If anyone else had known or suspected they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

"So you're saying it's not true?"

Mack could read Barbara well enough to know she was hoping for an affirmative response. There was something going on beneath the anger that Mack couldn't quite make out. Too bad he wasn't in the mood to try.

"I'm saying it's none of your business."

Mack side stepped around Barbara and headed back to his office, hoping Barbara would choose not to follow in order to avoid a scene.

"I beg to differ. If you've gone off the deep end then it's the entire precinct's business, and I'm the only one not too scared of you to ask."

Alas all hopes of stemming the conversation seemed to be in vain.

"Off the deep end? Being a little melodramatic aren't we?"

What he was supposed to getting her from Barbara. Concern? Doubtful.

"You, doing a favor for a West? If there's a surer sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what it is."

The term favor was a bit strong. After all what did a little paperwork and a few phone calls about to in the scheme of things.

"All I did was ask for one false arrest to be removed from an otherwise spotless record. I made a mistake and wanted to correct it. That's all."

Really it wasn't such a huge deal. Mack could admit to being wrong. On the exceedingly rare occasion he actually was, that is.

"No, that's not all. You didn't just file the paperwork, which by the way was not your job, you got it bumped to the top of the pile."

"Cheryl came in the other day and told me people weren't hiring her because of that arrest."

The instant the words came out Mack wondered if they'd been the right thing to say.

"Oh, Cheryl did, did she?"

Crap, now Barbara would be all over him for using Cheryl's first name.

"Yes, she did."

It didn't mean anything, it was just a habit, after knowing someone over a long period of time. In fact Mack had actually known Cheryl longer than he'd known Barbara. That was a strange thought.

"And because you and the Wests have always been such good friends you needed to go out of your way to help them."

Ah, how Mack had missed accusatory sarcasm. Oh, no wait he hadn't.

"For years I have be trying to rid Palms Springs of all West-related crime and for the past month I haven't had any problems from them. Now I don't think they can keep it up any more than the rest of the department does, but I damn sure won't be the reason they return to old habits. If that means taking a little crap from you and the rest of the force for helping her, so be it."

Mack was feeling pretty good about his statement regarding his professional interest in the Wests. Barbara, however, didn't seemed reassured.

"'Her'?"

"What?"

"You said 'taking crap for helping her'. You meant 'them' didn't you? You meant taking crap for helping the Wests."

Uh oh. How exactly had that slipped out wrong?

"Right. Well, I mean it's the same thing. Cheryl the one who's trying to go straight and she making the rest of them follow her."

Yeah, that made sense, to help Cheryl was to help the Wests.

"Sure. You know, maybe this does make sense after all."

Despite the words, Barbara's tone didn't seem to indicate she had accepted his logic.

"What do you mean?"

Mack's ex-wife was quiet for a moment, as though she was considering not answering.

"I once asked you if you thought you'd ever catch the complete set, all the Wests, from Grandpa to baby Hope. You told me that would never happen because Cheryl West was different. That she was better, honest. That she wasn't a criminal."

Mack froze. Sure he'd had those thoughts from time to time over the years, but he was certain he'd never said them out loud, especially not to Barbara.

"I never said that."

"Yes, you did. Granted you were a little drunk at the time, but you did say it."

No, he couldn't have, could he? Usually Mack only drank socially, but there had been a few times, especially toward the end of his marriage were he'd had more than a few.

"And you remembered it."

Barbara looked away for a second, like she was embarrassed by the fact that she had.

"Mack, I never fully understood your obsession with that family. Now that we're divorced I don't have to try, but a word of caution for old time's sake: Mind the line."

Barbara left Mack's office leaving him for the second time this week deep in thought about Cheryl West. Barbara had called his pursuit of the Wests an obsession. Sure he'd been on their case for the past twenty years, and yeah he had given it his all. Maybe he brought his work home a little more often than was necessary, and yeah maybe he had gone a little, uh, above and beyond to ensure Wolf's conviction this last go round, but what Barbara was implying was that all the work he'd done in the pursuit of justice had something to do with Cheryl. What had he said while under the influence to make Barbara caution him about minding the line between cop and con? The whole thing was ridiculous. Wasn't it?


	3. Chapter 3

First Barbara, now Cheryl. No matter what he did Mack couldn't seemed to avoid getting his head chewed off this week. When Detective Potts had called and warned him Cheryl was on the war path Mack had briefly considered fleeing the premises. He'd reconsidered when he'd realized he'd have a better shot of containing the situation if he was the one who took the abuse. Potts was his partner after all, an idiot of a partner who Mack may have to shoot later, but a partner none the less.

"I want him charged with stalking!"

To date this may be the most furious he'd ever seen Cheryl, including all the times he'd arrested her husband and son.

"Alright, can we just take a breath here for a second. What happened is totally out of line and I will deal with Officer Potts, but understand this, if you put a charge like that into his file, you pretty much put an end to the career of a good detective."

Mack was trying appeal to Cheryl's gentler, more merciful nature, assuming she had one when it came to policemen that stalk her daughter.

"Look who suddenly wants to be fair. What about the false arrest on my record?"

This would have been an ideal time to be able to tell Cheryl he had cleared her record for her, however he still hadn't heard back from O'Brien yet.

"I get that you're pissed, but let me deal with this."

Mack had every intention of ripping Potts a new one when he got ahold of him, he just didn't want one stupid move to ruin the rest of the younger detective's life. Cheryl of all people should be able to understand that.

"You know, you guys screw with me every chance you get, watch me fall on my face and do nothing to help. Now you think you can mess with my kids and get away with it? Not today!"

Obviously Cheryl wasn't open to listening to reason. It was a little unfair, given that Heather wasn't completely innocent in all this.

"Alright Cheryl, but this is not going to be an easy fight. Not with your daughter running around with no clothes on."

Potts had managed to relay that in his rushed and jumbled phone call that the inciting incidence was apparently watching Heather bare all at the Sparkle Club. Cheryl must have been really been serious about her financial situation if she was letting her daughter strip. Only a month ago she'd been furious Heather had been posing as an underwear model.

"Are you saying that my daughter somehow deserves this because of what she wears?"

Odd, Cheryl didn't seem to get the reference.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of what she doesn't wear. At the Sparkle Club."

What, was she covering for Heather to somehow, what preserve her reputation or something?

"Heather is a cocktail waitress at the Sparkle Club."

Yeah and men buy Playboy to for the articles. Mack couldn't help laughing, until he realized that Cheryl was serious. She really had no idea. Crap. What had Mack done to deserve having to tell Cheryl her daughter was taking off her clothes for money?

"Oh geez. I'm sorry Cheryl. I thought you knew."

Cheryl stood there in silence for a minute, her entire face tensing and her whole frame practically vibrating with anger. Mack didn't say anything for fear it would bring on a massive explosion. Even if he could speak he wouldn't really know what to say. 'I'm sorry your daughter became a stripper and didn't tell you' probably wouldn't be all that comforting. Before Mack could think of something better, Cheryl had stormed out of his office yet again. Good news for Potts as Cheryl's rage seemed temporarily derailed. Bad news for Heather and possibly every male patron of the Sparkle Club.


End file.
